In order to qualify as a solicitor in the United Kingdom, a law graduate has to undergo a traineeship involving a compulsory period of practical training in a law firm which is technically termed as “training contract”. This training period is generally of two years and has evolved from what was called ‘articleship’ in the earlier days. Generally, law graduates from India take up the LLM route, completing their ‘Legal Practice Course’ (L.P.C.) thereafter. The training contract usually commences after the Legal Practice Course and involves being in full-time employment and learning the practical skills of a solicitor. To practice as a solicitor in England and Wales, an India-qualified lawyer must mandatorily sit for the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT). The QLTT is a conversion test which enables lawyers qualified from India and other Commonwealth countries outside England and Wales such as USA and Australia to qualify as solicitors.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for conducting the QLTT. To appear for it, one needs to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility from the Law Society of England and Wales. This certificate confirms the heads of the test one needs to pass, along with any requirement for further training. Indian law graduates, being from a common law background have the privilege to appear just one paper i.e. ‘Professional Conduct & Accounts’. However, at the moment, the SRA is in the process of reviewing the requirements for overseas lawyers.
For applications made on or after September 2008, lawyers from outside the EU are required to prove to the Law Society that they have at least two years of work experience in legal practice in a common law jurisdiction, of which at least one year must have been gained by practising the law of England and Wales. Further, the latter experience must have been gained under the direct supervision of a legal professional admitted as a Solicitor in England &Wales. Additionally, one must also have had experience of three distinct areas of law and experience of both contentious and non-contentious practice.
The structuring of a training contract generally varies; with the larger firms having more organised training programmes as compared to the mid-sized and smaller firms. As a matter of practice, larger firms make the trainee solicitors spend blocks of six months in different departments, for instance, six months in four departments, or twelve months in one department and six months in another two which are technically referred to as ‘seats’. As mentioned earlier, the Law Society requires the solicitors to cover at least three areas of work during the training contract which should be both non-contentious and contentious work. Law Society of England and Wales guidelines also place the obligation on the firms to allocate a ‘training principal’ to guide and appraise the performance of all the trainee solicitors. It is the responsibility of the ‘training principal’ to maintain the training records and ensure that the level of training complies with the Law Society requirements.
Lauren Dunington has rightly called application forms as ‘window to the applicant’s soul’ because more often than not, they are the sole determinant as to whether or not one is going to make it to the interview stage. Generally, each law firm in UK has its own online application procedure which would involve the filling up of an extensive online application. In smaller firms, one can generally apply by sending across his/her curriculum vitae along with a covering letter. Obtaining a training contract in the UK is possibly one of the best experiences which an Indian legal professional can achieve. The training contract application has to be exceptional and one should be able to highlight the qualifications he/she has obtained. The next stage is of the interview where a candidate’s confidence and preparedness is put to test. It always pays to do significant amount of research on the law firms and judge where one could fit in best. This is advisable because the genuineness of a candidate is going to be verified at the interview stage.
Merely qualifying the QLTT or passing the LPC does not guarantee a training contract to the candidates. Even if one’s candidature reflects years of experience in his home jurisdiction, finding a training contract can prove to be a waiting game. Just to present our readers with a glimpse of the real scenario, on an average, there would be about 175 genuine applicants for every training contract vacancy. At this juncture, it would be pertinent to mention that the trick lies in marketing oneself through the application forms if one has to be the best among equals. Few dos and don’ts to be kept in mind while applying for training contracts are enlisted below:
Usage of professional language makes a good impression on the application reviewer and subsequently on the interviewer. Short, crisp and relevant answers always help the applicant avoid the likelihood of a mismatch between the question and the answer.
Copying and pasting only leads to bore the recruiters as the generic and traditional copy-pasted material only gives them a fresh reason to eliminate an application. Copying blindly from the public resources available through online search-engines only proves to be a waste of time and is not tolerated by the application reviewers.
Answering the questions to the point often saves the time of the reviewer and avoids the possibility of making a point convoluted and ambiguous. Honesty in the applications helps one avoid beating around the bush as it enables one to mention one’s strengths and weaknesses as well.
Lies in an application form may boomerang back at the applicant and it is always better to prevent and prepare than to repent and repair. The recruiters are experienced enough to assess the true skills and abilities of an applicant.
Reaching the interview stage definitely boost the morale of an applicant. Preparing for an interview matters a lot as it has been rightly said that, ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’. It has to be kept in mind at all times that the law firms are looking for their representatives in the legal market who have to be ‘socially smart’. So, one’s body language backed by eye contact and confidence is going to be incredibly important. Needless to say, one’s research on the firm viz., its clientage, deals or information on anything that is newsworthy always succeeds in giving a good impression.
We often get the news of UK law firms planning to open liaison offices in India or announcing their tie-ups with Indian law firms. It is no secret that the UK legal market will continue to expand globally and hence UK firms need the experience, expertise and language skills of qualified lawyers from India. It is to be remembered that getting a training contract is not a destination; rather, it is a journey filled with long working hours and sheer hard work. On a concluding note, it would be fair to say that, with the kind of rigorous curriculum being now offered by the law colleges/institutes of India and the exposure provided by the various extra-curricular activities, the potential to mould the talent in order to make them prospective training contract holders is tremendous.
Jesal Patel Trainee Solicitor (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, London)
The best thing about getting a training contract with a magic circle firm is that one is able to choose the practice area of his/her choice. One gets to do transactional as well as advisory work. Any candidate would enjoy it as one gets the opportunity to work closely with the statute books and all the documentation one does is directly based on the law. It is up to the trainee solicitor to analyse it, draw conclusions and then draft the notes. The regulatory field has had plenty of happenings in it with the recent economic downturn and thus Indian law graduates get to work on some really interesting and challenging projects.
Generally, the atmosphere in any magic circle law firm is very conducive and people always acknowledge your hard work.While one is studying, it is not easy to determine which firm would suit a particular individual. So, it is always a good idea to brainstorm with trainee solicitors who can share their experiences and answer the questions about the firm a graduate has. There is a great deal of regulatory work to keep trainee solicitors busy and the transactional work further polishes one’s intellect. The advantage of getting a training contract is that the diverse work that one is exposed to helps one thrive, irrespective of the prevailing market condition.
Rendezvous with Neha Mishra Solicitor from Herbert Smith LLP, London
The profile of students who were recruited from my batch (2008 batch of NLSIU Bangalore) is wideranging. Students with stellar performance and excellent extra-curricular activities as well as prestigious internships are generally the first choice. But having said that, I think the firms also look for CVs which are interesting and show the potential that a student has. I believe a few students who were picked up by foreign law firms had no prior internship experience at any leading law firm, but they probably substituted that with other things such as debates or moots or possibly interesting NGO or litigation internships. There are also students who were recruited and they did not have the highest grades, but were positively inclined to a career in commercial law. I think the best advice would be that whatever students choose to do in law school, they must do it with dedication; be it mooting, debating, legal publications, being involved in college committees and doing voluntary work, doing corporate internships, and of course maintaining a consistent performance. To sum up, academic performance which is consistent and good is quite important in my view, but it is not always necessary that the grades should be exceptional to be invited for a training contract interview. I think being involved in co-curricular activities is an added asset in addition to grades, since it displays a lot of qualities such as team work, initiative and leadership which are the top priorities for a law firm.
As I stated earlier, I do not think firms have a set criteria of what they look for in terms of work experience. As you must be aware, a lot of students who qualify in England have no legal experience before they join. It is an advantage if you have worked for a reputed law firm since it shows an interest in corporate law or finance or any other commercial law but as I mentioned, the firms are not reluctant to recruit people with other interesting internships. The work experience section is only a part of the application and albeit important is not the only thing which firms look for. As long as you can display an interest in their practice as well as a good commercial understanding of issues other than the minimum performance requirement that a firm is looking for, every candidate has a good shot at getting an offer for training contract.
All foreign qualified lawyers, including those who choose to pursue their LLM in England, are required to take the QLTT exam to qualify as a Solicitor in England and Wales. I would say, QLTT is relatively an easy exam for Indian qualified lawyers as they have to pass only one subject i.e. Professional Ethics and Accounts. BPP and College of Law are very popular service providers amongst trainees here. However, there are a few other QLTT service providers. Most firms pay for the fees, which is quite high. Some LLM students also take the exam at their own expense if they are looking for a job in England. While most firms do follow the training contract regulations for their foreign qualified lawyers, it is not really necessary to follow those if they wish to qualify through QLTT route. The only requirements are in relation to work experience and passing the QLTT.
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